RESUMEN
Bimetallic Pd-Au and Pt-Au and monometallic Pd, Pt, and Au films were prepared by physical vapor deposition. The resulting surfaces were characterized by means of XPS, AFM, and CO adsorption from the liquid phase (CH2Cl2) monitored by ATR-IR spectroscopy. CO adsorption combined with ATR-IR proved to be a very sensitive method for probing the degree of interdiffusion occurring at the interfaces whose properties were altered by variation of the Pd and Pt film thickness from 0.2 to 2 nm. Because no CO adsorption was observed on Au, the evaporation of Pt-group metals on Au allowed us to study the effect of dilution on the adsorption properties of the surfaces. At equivalent Pd film thickness, the evaporation of Au reduced the amount of adsorbed CO and caused the formation of 2-fold bridging CO, which was almost absent in monometallic surfaces. Additionally, the average particle size on Pd-Au surfaces was smaller than that on monometallic Pd surfaces. The results indicate that a Pd/Au diffuse interface is formed that affects the Pd particle size even more drastically than the simple decrease in Pd film thickness in monometallic surfaces. Pt-Au surfaces were less sensitive to CO adsorption, indicating that the two metals do not mix to a significant extent. The difference in the interfacial behavior of Pd and Pt in the bimetallic gold films is traced to the largely different Pd-Au and Pt-Au miscibility gaps.
RESUMEN
Adsorption of cinchonidine on monometallic Au and bimetallic Pt-Au and Pd-Au thin model films prepared by physical vapor deposition has been investigated with attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy. On Au the alkaloid forms an adsorbed layer that shows higher stability against desorption than the corresponding adsorption on Pt. In this adsorption layer the intermolecular interactions dominate over metal-adsorbate interactions as indicated by the absence of the spectroscopic features attributed to strongly flat adsorbed species. This behavior is further supported by Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations indicating that flat and tilted orientations of the quinoline ring have comparable adsorption energy on Au but lower (7-10 kcal/mol) compared to adsorption on Pt (ca. 40 kcal/mol). As a consequence, the creation of a metal surface with isolated chiral sites is prevented by formation of an adsorbed structure formed by intermolecularly bound cinchonidine molecules on Au. While the binding to Pt is due to the formation of sigma-bonds to surface atoms, such aggregates are bound to Au mainly by van der Waals forces. Given this different nature of bonding of cinchonidine to Au and Pt, addition of Au to Pt and Pd films could be used to probe the changes of fractional coverage of the different adsorbed species of cinchonidine on the platinum metals. It is demonstrated that the lowering of the domain size of the platinum group metal by Au can simulate the effect of particle size on the distribution of the surface conformations of the alkaloid on a metal surface.
RESUMEN
Two-dimensional lattice structures formed by racemic tartaric acid on a single crystalline Cu(110) surface have been studied and compared with the enantiopure lattices. At low coverage, the doubly deprotonated bitartrate species is separated into two-dimensional conglomerates showing opposite enantiomorphism. At higher coverage, however, a singly deprotonated monotartrate species forms a heterochiral, racemic crystal lattice. While the enantioseparated bitartrate system undergoes decomposition at the same temperature as the enantiopure system, the racemic monotartrate lattice has a lower thermal stability than the enantiopure lattice of identical periodicity and surface density. At monolayer saturation coverage, the pure enantiomers form a denser lattice than the racemate. This is in contrast to the three-dimensional tartaric acid crystals, where the racemate crystallizes in a lattice of higher density, which is also more thermally stable than the enantiopure tartaric acid crystals.
RESUMEN
The vast majority of chiral compounds crystallize into racemic crystals. It has been predicted and was experimentally established as a rule that chiral molecules on surfaces are more easily separated into homochiral domains due to confinement into a plane and lower entropic contributions. We investigated the formation and stability of two-dimensional tartrate crystals on a Cu(110) surface for the racemic mixture for the first time by means of temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). At low coverage, a bitartrate species becomes separated into homochiral domains, while at high coverage a monotartrate species forms a racemic mixture. At the same coverage and lateral arrangement, the thermally induced autocatalytic decomposition reaction occurs for the monotartrate racemate at a lower temperature than for the pure enantiomers. The stereochemistry in this so-called "surface explosion" reaction is explained by a higher stability of the enantiopure lattice due to lateral hydrogen-bond formation. The higher stability of the enantiopure two-dimensional lattice is in contrast to the higher stability of racemic three-dimensional tartaric acid crystals but is consistent with the observation that homochirality is preferred in hydrogen-bonded self-assembled biomolecular structures.